Roald Dahl and Harry Potter provide World Book Day inspiration

Millions of children across the world will be celebrating World Book Day today, with many arriving at schools all over the UK in costumes resembling their favourite characters from Roald Dahl’s the Duke of Hampshire to Disney classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

World Book Day is usually held on the first Thursday in March and as well as experimenting with their dressing up box, children will receive National Book Tokens that they can redeem on a selection of books, or to get money off others. 

Cricketer Ben Stokes also provided inspiration today with one youngster imitating the book cover of his 2019 book ‘On Fire: My Story of England’s Summer to Remember.’

As children don their best fancy dress, it was today revealed that fewer children and young people are reading daily and enjoying reading than ever before.

In 2019 only 25.8 per cent of children said they read in their free time – the lowest level recorded since 2005, the National Literary Trust says.

Throughout the day authors will visit schools up and down the country to promote books and reading alike.

Today a group of friends at one school in Essex stunned their school mates when they turned up dressed as the characters from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Triplet brothers Kuzey, Koray and Ayaz Cerikci, all five, struck up a bond with five-year-old triplet sisters Isabella, Sophia-Lorenza and Celestina Smith and twin brothers Bobby and Freddie Cornett, four, last September when the youngsters all enrolled in the same reception class – despite there only being 103 children in the whole school.

Sue Dodd, headteacher at Woodham Walter Primary School, said: ‘We are in the unusual position of having two sets of triplets and a set of twins in a very small class.

‘They are all delightful children, as are the rest of the cohort.

‘Reading is a strength of our school and this term the children have taken part in World Book Day.

‘The triplets and twins love books and relish any opportunity to dress up as their favourite characters.

‘It was lovely seeing them beginning their reading journey with so much enthusiasm and excitement.’

In Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, eight-year-old Noa and her brother River Dowling, six, dressed as the Lorax and the Grinch today as their school had a Dr Seuss theme.

Noa wore all orange with a tutu, while River wore all green and had his face painted. 

This is while another youngster, Harley, looked super cool this morning when he dressed up as Horrid Henry.

17-month-old Jessica also got in the spirit of things and dressed in an adorable Goldilocks outfit this morning. 

2020 marks the 23rd year that there has been a World Book Day and the celebration is marked all over the world. 

It’s a celebration of reading and the writing and illustrators who help the stories come to life. 

World Book Day was first created on 23 April 1995 by UNESCO in order to help young people discover the pleasure of reading.   

In the UK and Ireland, the first World Book Day was celebrated in 1997 to promote reading for fun.

Its founder, Baroness Gail Rebuck said : ‘We wanted to do something to reposition reading and our message is the same today as it was then – that reading is fun, relevant, accessible, exciting, and has the power to transform lives.’ 

The charity behind World Book Day is also encouraging people to help a nationwide effort to ‘share a million stories’.

The challenge involves reading or being read to for at least ten minutes, with every person who hears the story counting towards the one million target.

At the beginning of World Book Day more than 180,000 stories have already been ‘shared’ as part of the campaign, which began on February 27 and runs until March 29.

Cassie Chadderton, chief executive of World Book Day, said: ‘Year on year, the evidence grows that World Book Day is having a positive impact on the reading behaviour of our children and young people.

‘By putting more books directly into the hands of children and young people and, at the same time, encouraging everyone, everywhere to get into the habit of sharing stories regularly, World Book Day is helping create readers for life.’

Dr Elizabeth Kilbey, who is supporting the Department for Education’s Hungry Little Minds campaign and who has previously starred in shows such as Channel 4’s The Secret Life of 4, 5 and 6-year-olds said you don’t need pricey books to help children read.

‘Helping to nurture an interest in the written word can make a world of difference to your child’s language, communication skills and overall development. 

‘Aside from reading with them at home, there are also lots of opportunities throughout the day to read words. 

‘For example on food labels, on clothes, on toys, in supermarkets, on buses, on billboards and adverts, you don’t need pricey books. Spending that quality time together to chat, play and read with under 5s before they start school, can set them up to thrive socially and academically in later life.’ 

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